Royal Bank of Canada RY-T is hiring an outsider as executive chair for City National Bank, its U.S.-based lender that caters to ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Greg Carmichael, the former chief executive officer of U.S. regional lender Fifth Third Bancorp, is set to join RBC in October. While he will technically sit on City National’s board of directors, he will report directly to RBC CEO Dave McKay.
City National’s CEO Kelly Coffey, who was hired away from JP Morgan Chase & Co. in 2018, will report to Mr. Carmichael.
Mr. Carmichael spent the past two decades at Fifth Third, which has a market value of US$19-billion. He joined the Cincinnati-based lender as an executive vice-president and rose to become CEO. He took on the executive chair role there in July, 2022, but retired from the bank this spring.
In March, Mr. Carmichael was tapped by U.S. regulators to serve as a temporary CEO of Signature Bank after it failed and was seized. Mr. Carmichael had been recruited to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s roster of veteran bankers who could step in and run bridge banks that sell off assets or wind down after they have been taken over by regulators.
At RBC, Mr. Carmichael is taking on a role similar to the one currently held by wealth management and insurance head Doug Guzman. In January, 2022, Mr. Guzman added oversight of RBC’s U.S.-based wealth businesses and City National to his portfolio, and the latter’s CEO reported to him.
At the time, Mr. Guzman was filling a hole created by the departure of Russell Goldsmith, the chair and former CEO of City National whose family ran the bank for more than 40 years.
RBC acquired City National for $7.1-billion in 2015 and hired Ms. Coffey as its CEO in 2018. Previously, she ran JP Morgan’s private bank, which caters to high-net-worth clients, and held multiple roles at the financial institution, including running the diversified-industries arm of its investment bank, advising companies such as Ford Motor Co. and United Airlines Inc.